Last week, Mr Butterscotch asked if the Edinburgh Interactive Festival was to have playable games. The Festival organisers have now announced details of their ‘Games Screenings’:

The Edinburgh Interactive Games Screenings, held once again at the Odeon Cinema, Lothian Road on Tuesday 14th August, is an exclusive one-day showcase giving gamers the chance to mix with some of the famous faces behind many of their favourite games, besides sneak previews of the top upcoming titles in this exclusive one-day showcase. Packed full of premieres and news exclusives, Edinburgh Interactive Festival 2007 brings fans closer to games than ever before.

Judging by the prolific use of the word ’screenings’ in the full press release and a complete lack of the word ‘interactive’, I’m guessing that the answer is “No.”

There will, however, be the world premiere of Rise of the Argonauts and Turning Point. (What? No, I don’t know either. The first is an RPG (yay!) and the second is an alternate-history FPS. I’m guessing that means WWII shooter with enemies that *gasp* aren’t Nazis! How novel.)

Other events are:

• How to get into the video games industry with Rebecca Thompson
• Race Driver (Codemasters) by Jamie Firth/Firebrand
• Guitar Hero III European Premiere (Activision) by Simon Byron
• Ace combat 6 (Atari) by Lee Kirton
• Unreal Tournament 2007 (Epic) by Mark Rein
• Clive Barker’s Jericho (Cert 18) by Andrew Wafer
• BioShock (Take 2) (Cert 18) by Adrian Lawton
• Colin McRae: Dirt (Codemasters) by Guy Pearce
• Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (Eidos) by Chris Glover/FunCom
• Assassin’s Creed (TBC) (Ubisoft) (Cert TBC) by Luc Duchaine (Brand Manager)
• Consolevania World Exclusive (Cert 15)
• Haze (Free Radical Design/Ubisoft) (Cert 18) by Dr Dave Doak
• Rise of the Argonauts World Exclusive (Codemasters) - Video only
• Turning Point World Exclusive (Codemasters) – Video only
• Game Over – Animated video montage of classic arcade games by PES

For some reason I always thought that game were for playing, not for watching. Silly me. Also, an animated video montage of classic arcade games? What the heck for?

Finally, if you’re a student you can attend the industry expert panel on How To Get Into The Games Industry and maybe play some games. Or perhaps not. How would you interpret “Students can also sample the action with a series of specially tailored screenings”?

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